Talented real estate investors possess a mix of important attributes – the ability to discern value, the ability to manage people and assets, the ability to hold several different economic plotlines in the head at the same time, patience, diligence. The list goes on. Alexandra Hill, investor relations principal at The Blackstone Group and WIRE Network cofounder
None of these attributes can be labelled either masculine or feminine. And yet the casual observer might not reach this conclusion when casting an eye across the leadership of today’s global real estate investment industry, which is dominated by men.
We’ll leave the reasons behind private equity real estate’s historic male over-allocation to the anthropologists. More important is what the future looks like for this asset class, and as you’ll learn from this series of profiles, the future will see many more women deploying capital, and the gender-specific details of these professionals will eventually be seen as unremarkable in part because of the pioneering leadership of the 10 women profiled here. 
Understand the importance of the box,
but never be willing to
live in it.
Working with the New York- and San Francisco-based Women in Real Estate Network (WIRE), PERE has compiled a list of the 10 most influential women in private real estate investing globally today. After sounding out almost 100 real estate professionals from all over the world on who should make the list, PERE has pulled together the women we believe are fundamentally shaping and reshaping private equity real estate. In gathering nominations for this list, we came to learn the names of nearly 50 candidates who are highly esteemed by WIRE members and our readers. “Influence” can mean a number of things, but this being the finance industry we generally let money influence our decision-making. These 10 women are predominantly deal professionals and institutional investors with the ability to deploy substantial amounts of capital.
The women profiled here have advice for younger women rising through the ranks in real estate investing, and you’ll not be surprised to learn that their advice is exactly the same as might be offered to anyone building a career in investing: take stands, and take measured risks. As one of the influential women told us: “Understand the importance of the box, but never be willing to live in it.” There is no special widget that we sell as an industry. We are all out there buying and selling real estate. Your job is to find the smartest, hardest-working people, with the most integrity and align yourself with them, gender makes no difference.
Alexandra Hill, investor relations principal at The Blackstone Group and WIRE Network cofounder, says the private real estate investing world is “100 percent” about individual talent and the intellectual capital a person can bring to real estate investing. “There is no special widget that we sell as an industry. We are all out there buying and selling real estate,” she explains, advising: “Your job is to find the smartest, hardest-working people, with the most integrity and align yourself with them, gender makes no difference.”
Established in January 2008 by Hill; Larissa Herczeg, director of Morgan Creek Capital Management; Liz Madzula, GE Capital Real Estate senior asset manager and Nik Tan, senior vice president at GIC Real Estate; WIRE (www.womeninrealestatenetwork.com) was created as a networking tool for female private equity real estate executives. From an initial start of just four professionals, WIRE has grown to more than 500 members.
Herczeg adds that one of WIRE’s missions is to highlight “prominent women in the industry.” Which, neatly, brings us to the 10 most influential women in private real estate investing.
Trish Barrigan
Benson Elliot Capital Management
Jamie Behar
Promark Investment Advisors
Cia Buckley
Dune Real Estate Partners
Joanne Douvas
Clerestory Capital Partners
Claudia Faust
Hawkeye Partners
Nori Gerardo Lietz
Partners Group
Archana Hingorani
IL&FS Investment Managers
Victoria Shigehira Sharpe
Pramerica Real Estate Investors (Asia)
Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz
LaSalle Investment Management
Marjorie Tsang Barrigan
New York State Common Retirement Fund
Trish Barrigan
Senior partner
Benson Elliot Capital Management
In an investment era where track record is key, Barrigan is among the industry’s leaders. After a decade
working for Goldman Sachs’ Real Estate Principal Investment Area and its Whitehall funds in the US and Europe, and another two years running the real estate programme of Dubai Investment Group, the New Jersey-born executive has closed and invested in some of the world’s biggest deals, including the acquisition of New York’s Rockefeller Center. Most professionals though will already know this about Barrigan, who has been repeatedly recognised as one of the industry’s rising stars, a “trailblazing visionary” and a woman expected to “shape the evolution of the asset class”. As senior partner of Benson Elliot Capital Management, Barrigan is helping lead acquisition efforts as the London-based firm looks to invest its recently raised €505 million BREP Fund III. In joining Benson Elliot in 2006, Barrigan says she put into action a philosophy of being “flexible, but fearless. Seize the opportunity when it’s presented to you and don’t be afraid of change and movement.” Leaving Whitehall to lead DIG’s real estate programme, which she grew fr 
om $500 million AUM to $3 billion, including direct and indirect investments, was “a very difficult decision”, but she added: “It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my career”, paving the way for her to become number two at Benson Elliot.
Jamie Behar
Managing director of real estate and alternative investments,
Promark Investment Advisors (formerly General Motors Investment Management)
When PERE asked industry professionals who the most influential women in real estate were, one answer kept coming back: follow the money. Responsible for approximately $10.5 billion in real estate and alternative investments on behalf of General Motors’, Behar certainly fits that criteria. Yet, Behar is not the kind of person to promote that fact. Extremely reserved, Behar has been described as “stellar” and “tremendous” by numerous fund managers. Indeed, Behar’s diligence in making investments has elevated her to one of the most respected institutional investors in the US, according to one GP, not least owing to the fact she “used to do all the REIT investing herself as opposed to through [fund] managers”. Behar first joined Promark (formerly known as General Motors Investment Management) in 1986 as portfolio manager, and was appointed managing director of real estate and alternative investments in October 2005. She is also chairman of the industry investor group, the US Pension Real Estate Association.
Cia Buckley Buckley
Partner
Dune Real Estate Partners
You don’t get anywhere in private equity real estate unless you’re willing to push the limits and take “measured
risks”, according to Buckley. An asset class sharply correlated to the macro economy, opportunistic real estate is about making money “around the edges. That’s the difference between being an average manager and being a top manager,” Buckley stresses. And she should know. Formerly head of JER Partners’ US fund business and an executive with Bankers Trust during the RTC crisis, Buckley has led the acquisition of more than $6 billion of investments during the past two decades. Today, at Dune, Buckley is focused on new equity and debt investments, predominantly in the US, after the firm closed its latest fund, Dune Real Estate Partners Fund II, last year on $793.9 million. Being a great manager though in today’s real estate markets is not just about having a handle on the core analytics. Although a vital grounding for any GP, Buckley says the best managers are those with the “intuition, perspective and judgment gained through the experience of highs and lows of several cycles,” she says. “This business is an intellectual capital game and that’s challenging, but also very exciting and rewarding.”
Joanne Douvas Douvas
Founding principal
Clerestory Capital Partners
If there was one thing PERE’s influential women agreed on it was the need for people to “take a stand” to be successful in this industry. Douvas acknowledges she’s been happy to take a stand or two during more than 29
years as a real estate investor and fund manager, including as head of JPMorgan Asset Management’s real estate fiduciary group, where she managed AT&T’s pension fund. “Often my role has been to point out that the Emperor has no clothes on,” she concedes. That willingness to frankly debate issues when others have not has positioned Douvas as one of the industry’s leading proponents of strong limited partnership agreements – for the GP, as well as the LP. Founding fund of funds Clerestory Capital with former JP Morgan alum Tommy Brown in 2007, Douvas is currently looking to invest with opportunistic real estate GPs raising less than $1 billion. Douvas insists it’s vital to incentivise the best fund managers. “You need to make sure GPs are compensated fairly. However, as GPs, how you’ve treated your investors and how transparent you’ve been will be a great indicator of whether you’ll survive.” 
Claudia Faust
Co-founder, managing partner
Hawkeye Partners
If the past few years have taught the real estate investing world anything, it’s that success is not just about doing the biggest deals – it’s also about having the courage not to deploy capital. In co-founding Hawkeye Partners in 2004, one of a few platforms that seed emerging real estate GPs with capital, Claudia Faust and Scott McArtor saw the real estate bubble forming, and acted according. Indeed, Faust – a former Pension Consulting Alliance principal – says Hawkeye itself didn’t start committing the capital they raised in 2006 until 2008, precisely because of the state of the market. That discipline has won Faust praise across the industry. As she now looks to add to the stable of four GPs Hawkeye invested in with its follow-on fund, the $700 million Scout Fund I – GPs which include Jeff Kaplan’s Meadow Partners and Garrison Investment Group, originally founded by former Fortress Investment Group executives Steve Stuart and Joe Tansey – Faust notes that it takes “a lot” to make it in private equity real estate. “What you want to do is build a sustainable platform,” she says, adding: “While our industry appears to be competitive, relatively few GPs ultimately receive capital.” After a decade with PCA, Faust says she set up Hawkeye to help change that. She notes: “Competition is important – it ultimately benefits investors. If we can do something about that, we all win.”
Nori Gerardo Lietz Gerardo Lietz
Partner and chief strategist, private real estate
Partners Group
If you had to name just one influential woman in real estate, that name would probably be Gerardo Lietz. As co-
founder of consultancy firm Pension Consulting Alliance and money management firm Public Storage Management, and now partner and chief strategist of private real estate for Partners Group, there are few professionals in the industry that haven’t been influenced by Gerardo Lietz over the past 25 years. And with the industry set to experience a “major shake-up” in terms of GP composition and LP risk appetite, that influence will undoubtedly continue. As investor capital increasingly eyes core strategies in major global cities, Gerardo Lietz says now is a time for GPs to “go where the capital isn’t” and “get paid for taking risks”, particularly relating to real estate equity and debt restructuring. Following the herd, is not in Gerardo Lietz’s vocabulary. “To be successful in this business you have to take risks,” she says, including voicing strong opinions. “At times I've felt like the cursed Cassandra,” she adds. “I've had to assume the risk of being unpopular. Winning the Miss Congeniality award was never going to happen. But, when you stake out tough positions, it really helps to be right and to have really thick skin.” 
Archana Hingorani Hingorani Sharpe
Chief executive and executive director
IL&FS Investment Managers
Hingorani co-founded Mumbai-based IL&FS Investment Managers’ first private equity fund in the mid-90s,
establishing a real estate platform in 2006 with the launch of the $525 million ILFS India Realty Fund I – one of the earliest institutional investment real estate vehicles seen in India. As such, she believes she is one of India’s highest profile women in private equity real estate mainly by default, with few others having had the chance to surface in such a short timeframe. A fund manager, first and foremost, US-educated Hingorani – who has spent 24 years in financial services and teaching and 15 years in fund management – admits she encounters few women among IL&FS’ real estate partners. “Looking at our sector from the real estate perspective, in India you are dealing with people of a different mindset,” she said. “Most real estate people we have worked with have been developers or entrepreneurs all their lives and are used to dealing with one type of society, which means they largely deal with male counterparts. I’m not saying it’s any more difficult for them to deal with a woman, it’s just different.” IL&FS’s follow-up fund, the $895 million ILFS India Realty Fund II, is approximately 60 percent invested but rather than pondering capital raising for Fund III, Hingorani is more focused on completing a significant number of exits from existing investments.
Victoria Shigehira Sharpe
Managing director, chief executive of Asia
Pramerica Real Estate Investors (Asia)
Japanese-American Sharpe has become something of a minor celebrity in Pramerica Real Estate investors’ target markets of Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Japan after years of executing retail investments. Indeed,
Prudential’s €1 billion Asia Property Fund, raised in the now-unfancied fundraising year of 2008, is currently projecting net returns of 15 percent to 16 percent – not bad when you consider so many vehicles of that vintage are struggling to preserve equity, never mind manage a return at all. The secret? Sharpe, who boasts a resume including tenures at Chicago-based firms LaSalle Advisors and Capri Capital, as well as Northern Trust and San Diego-based Institutional Property Consultants, believes adopting value-added strategies – at a time when the competition sought seemingly more lucrative opportunity vehicles – was a factor. This, Sharpe – the only female on PREI’s global management committee – says, will hold the firm in good stead when it starts fundraising for follow-on efforts next year. But she notes: “A lot of why there are few high profile women in private equity real estate is down to the travel required for the top jobs. Consider the three areas that reflect the top positions: transaction execution, investor-facing and portfolio management positions – the nature of the business makes it very difficult for a lot of men to reach such positions, let alone women.” 
Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz Lloyd-Hurwitz
Managing director, Europe
LaSalle Investment Management
In an industry that excels on taking advantage of volatility, it’s often difficult to build a consistent track record, however that’s exactly what’s needed to succeed, according to Lloyd-Hurwitz. “It’s not about the big decisions,
the big deals or the glamorous calls. It’s about consistency over time, without taking the safe option,” she explains. Having joined LaSalle Investment Management in the newly-created position of managing director, Europe in March, Lloyd-Hurwitz is now in charge of the firm’s core platform and business operations across Europe, responsible for 235 staff. She is the only woman on the firm’s nine-person global management committee. “It’s easy to hire people like yourself, but you build a much better firm when you don’t. Whatever gender you are, whatever personality you have, you need diversification.” That’s certainly been key for Lloyd-Hurwitz – also a mother-of-three – over the past two decades, after working in the US, Asia and Europe for MGPA, Macquarie Group, Lend Lease and Rosen Consulting Group in direct and indirect fund and portfolio management, fund development, M&A, deals and strategy development. What it all boils down to though, is taking tough decisions when needed, she says. “You don’t have to be right every time, but it’s about being right often enough that helps you builds a track record.”
Marjorie Tsang Tsang
Assistant Comptroller for Real Estate Investments
New York State Common Retirement Fund
When you are in charge of a $5.5 billion global real estate portfolio, with billions more to invest, it’s easy to
understand why you’d be considered an influential figure. However, listen to anyone who’s ever dealt with Tsang during her 11 years as assistant comptroller for real estate investments at the $133 billion New York Common Retirement Fund and you’ll know that her influence comes, not from the chair she sits in, but from the deals Tsang has made and her role in mentoring – and investing in – emerging managers. With the real estate industry set for a “new era of investing”, Tsang says it’s even more important for LPs to back the next generation of leaders, while continuing to support “tried-and-true” partners. “The smart investors are going to look at the opportunities before them and think broadly in terms of investment format,” she says. “It’s not about the packaging though, but the content and really all about the retirees and beneficiaries.” Tsang, who first joined New York Common after answering a New York Times job ad for a real estate workout attorney, advises everyone to take “appropriate risks”. Tsang herself is renowned for some savvy deals, including the 2001 acquisition of 450 Park Avenue, New York, with Taconic Investment Partners. The office, bought for $158 million and initially opposed by some internal decision-makers, was sold in 2007 to Somerset Partners for $509 million. “I really believed in it, so gathered the facts, stated the case and got folks onboard to do the deal.”
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